honorable mention
Daniel Taveira mexico
title
Naga Sadhus
They are known for the great acts of martyrdom, and why not say extravagant and impossible penances to human eyes. Some of them undergo situations like spending several years with one hand raised, years standing on one foot or lying on a bed of thorns. Others go further and bury themselves up to their necks, meditate for hours, suspended by a rope and even stay silent for years.
Allahabad, India.
back to gallery
entry description
Spokespersons for God, the Naga Sadhus are saints, renouncing everything and even their clothes. With their naked bodies covered in holy ash, they stand out for their own personal style of praying and meditating. Mortuary ashes signify the fleeting nature of life. Applying them on your body symbolizes the ephemeral body and is a reminder of the human being's immediate need to seek his true self. Always naked, beings with primitive, almost supernatural aspects, men who celebrate their own funeral, get rid of their goods and documents, ghosts, carnal saints where the State does not legally recognize their deaths and no longer considers them citizens. Men surprising and intimidating all those who cross their paths. People who died as a man and were reborn Sadhus, worshipers of Shiva, meditating and perfecting themselves as ascetic warriors. Constituting one of the most curious Hindu sects.They are known for the great acts of martyrdom, and why not say extravagant and impossible penances to human eyes. Some of them undergo situations like spending several years with one hand raised, years standing on one foot or lying on a bed of thorns. Others go further and bury themselves up to their necks, meditate for hours, suspended by a rope and even stay silent for years.
Allahabad, India.
about the photographer
Daniel Taveira was born in Tocantinopolis, Tocantins, Brazil. In 2010, after putting aside his Masters Degree in Finances from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Taveira moved to Mexico. In Mexico, he met renowned photographer Nadine Markova and became her disciple. Studying under Markova, Taveira began to pursue the “decisive instant,” which meant his lenses would capture the uniqueness of everyday moments through light, colors, forms, expressions and emotions. Taveira’s portraits are lavish depictions of humanity's diversity, his landscape and urban photographs are pristine in technique, abundant, full of colors and shapes.back to gallery